Monday, May 01, 2006

Your Cheese is Getting Moved!

Many PCUSA pastors preach from the lectionary. This is a good way to preach through the Bible. Follow it for three years and waa-laa, through most all of the Bible! There are a couple of problems with this preaching style. The first and most significant is that nothing could be further from the way that Jesus communicated the Kingdom of God to the people. I know, I know… none of us is Jesus. True! But does that mean we should ignore his teaching style? I think not. The second problem with this preaching style is that it does not tend to draw the unchurch to a worship service!

There are supposedly some good reasons for following the lectionary. The first I have already mentioned—preaching through the whole Bible. Is the whole Bible really preached? I think not! The Old Testament and New Testament readings are not connected. I’ve seen pastors do spiritual gymnastics to try and connect the passages. Pastors tend to preach from the reading that they are most comfortable with. When was the last time you heard a sermon on God wiping out entire towns due to their sinfulness? Pastors pick and choose all the time. The second reason for preaching the lectionary is that it keeps pastor’s personal agenda away from the pulpit. Give me a break! When was the last time you heard John Fife preach a sermon saying that we are to obey the governmental authorities over us? When was the last time you heard Jane Spahr preach that we are to expel the immoral believer? Personal agendas make it to the pulpit all the time. We just need to honest about it.

Jesus had a personal agenda. He wanted all people to hear the good news that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He wanted people to know that they must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of God. He used the situations that presented themselves to communicate his message. Should we do any less.

Let’s face it, advertising that you are preaching from the lectionary does not draw in the unchurched. It doesn’t even draw in the churched!! It is time to try something that may be new.

FIRST, every sermon I preach has its foundation in scripture. The sermon is rooted in scripture. Grounded in scripture. Period. End of discussion.

Second, I alternate sermon series. One series will be an expository series. The next will be based a topic that may draw the attention of the unchurched. My series on Breaking the Da Vinci Code (over a year ago when the book was a hot topic) caused our Sunday attendance to increase. My series on Why Men Hate Going to Church (using the book of the same title) drew more responses from men than any sermon series I have ever preached! I am currently preach a series called Experience Jesus, looking at Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. That mean…you guessed it… a topical series is next. This week I will be looking at my next series with the hopes that it may cause people to prayerfully ask the Lord what they should be preaching and teaching on.

My next series is called Who Moved My Cheese, and is based on the book Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

2 Comments:

At 3:25 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good post!

Expository preaching is the foundation of God's church in worship. The lectionary falls far short of our commission, as preachers, of expositing a text to the people--telling them what it says and applying it to their lives. The lectionary just gives, 'bits and scraps'.

I still prefer lectio continua, but the method of choosing a text is absolutely subordinate to how we preach.

 
At 10:25 AM , Blogger Digital Diet 365 said...

The Da Vinci code movie is a tool to get people to to believe (the lie) that Christ and Mary had a child...

Why?

To condition people into believing that one day the “heir” will make himself known to the world. The movie tells us (a few times) that the "heir" will make himself know to the world.

I bet that “heir” is none other than the antichrist.

Luciferian world emerging…Wake up America!

Leaders tell us there will be a one world Government:

“By the end of this decade (2000 AD) we will live under the first One

World Government that has ever existed in the society of nations … a government with absolute authority to decide the basic issues of human survival. One world government is inevitable.” Pope John Paul II quoted by Malachi Martin in the book “The Keys of This Blood”
“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.” Strobe Talbot, President Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State, as quoted in Time, July 20th, l992.
This “new world” is Luciferian based:
Those promoting the New World Order, global society, want Christianity removed to make way for people to accept Lucifer:
“Fundamental Bible-believing people do not have the right to indoctrinate their children in their religious beliefs because we, the state, are preparing them for the year 2000, when America will be part of a one-world global society and their children will not fit in.” –Nebraska State Senator Peter Hoagland, speaking on radio in 1983.
How do you prepare people for this coming one-world global society?
“To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism, and religious dogmas.” - Brock Adams, Director UN Health Organization

How would one enter this new society?
“No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation.” David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations

The Bible predicted and warned us about this a couple thousand years ago:
Rev 13:16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(666)

Did you know the technology to do this is here and ready?
“Is there a number or mark planned for the hand or forehead in a new cashless society? YES, and I have seen the machines that are now ready to put it into operation.” Ralph NaderThis technology is being used in Europe. People are already buying with RFID (radio frequency identification chips) implanted in their hands/arms.

What is so wrong with this?
Revelation 14 warns us:9And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

This Luciferian initiation, that David Spangler, UN, speaks of could very well be the mark of the beast, the Bible warns us about. And the mark of this man…who will it be? Could he emerge from the following?:

“We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all the people and to lift us up out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and whether he be God or devil, we will receive him.” -Paul-Henri Spaak,The first president of the United Nations General Assembly, who was also a prime minister of Belgium and one of the early planners of the European Common Market, as well as a secretary-general of NATO.

“I believe that if the people of this nation fully understood what Congress has done to them over the last 49 years, they would move on Washington; they would not wait for an election….It adds up to a preconceived plan to destroy the economic and social independence of the United States!” –George W. Malone, U.S. Senator (Nevada), speaking before Congress in1957.

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” ~ Albert Einstein

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home